ARTICLES ABOUT AID PACKAGE BY DATE - PAGE 2

WASHINGTON -- The United States is preparing to commit U.S. taxpayer funds as part of a lending program of at least $30 billion to try to insulate Brazil, and with it the rest of Latin America, from the worst effects of the global financial turmoil, according to U.S. and foreign officials assembling the program.Details of the U.S. contribution, which is expected to total several billion dollars in direct aid or loan guarantees, have yet to be negotiated. But several congressional leaders have been alerted to the likelihood that the administration would have to act while Congress is in recess.

THE APPROACHING summer tourism season is heaven, if you are a downtown hotel operator. Practically every room is booked between now and September. If you need a room, though, you could be in for a hellish experience.The situation promises to change. Not only has the City Council given final approval to a $40.9 million tax abatement and aid package to the 750-room Inner Harbor East Wyndham hotel, but it has also passed a bill that enables Baltimore to offer similar sweeteners to other hotel developers.

The Westminster auto parts company that federal immigration agents raided last week could lose state aid worth $1.55 million if found guilty of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.As the Immigration and Naturalization Service continues to investigate Marada Industries, state and local officials are asking whether the company used $2 million in government aid in 1995 to hire illegal workers."The grants are designed to bring work to Marylanders," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat who sits on the panel that awarded the state aid. "We don't want to facilitate any company subverting the immigration laws of the United States."

Additional education aid proposed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening this month would give Baltimore County about $10 million to fix aging buildings, help schools in low-income areas and support a program aimed at supporting new teachers.The aid package has quickly earned the support of Baltimore County educators and politicians. This morning, County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione are scheduled to testify in support of the proposal at a hearing in Annapolis before the House Ways and Means Committee.

A legislative oversight committee gave final approval yesterday to a $500,000 assistance package for the owners of a chain of radio stations, dismissing suggestions that the financing was a Glendening administration attempt to curry favor with a media outlet.The Legislative Policy Committee voted 15-7 to approve the financial package for a company controlled by the principals of Radio One Inc., which owns four stations in Baltimore and three in Washington.The company is moving its headquarters from Washington and is using the state funds to help pay for its purchase of an office building in Prince George's County.

JUST WHEN Maryland horse racing was starting to gain some momentum, internal squabbles threaten great harm to an already shaky industry. There won't be any monetary help from Annapolis until the racing community gets its act together. Key state lawmakers already have made that abundantly clear.A long history of bitterness between harness and thoroughbred interests lies behind the current discord on splitting simulcast revenues. Not only are Rosecroft (the harness track owned by harness horsemen)

The chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee proposed what he called a five-year, $317 million education aid package for Prince George's County yesterday, but coupled it with a demand for "accountability" such as the state imposed on Baltimore schools earlier this year.A leading Prince George's legislator described the proposal as "gratuitously divisive and inflammatory" and said the actual new spending in the package comes to about $90 million.Del. Howard P. Rawlings, a Baltimore Democrat, raised the politically charged issue in a letter dated yesterday to Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is preparing an election-year education aid increase for Prince George's County that will be roughly as big as the $254 million, five-year package given to Baltimore this year, sources said.The huge aid boost, which is to be presented to the General Assembly next year, would be designed to improve the county's schools and smooth the way for an end to the county's long-standing court-ordered busing plan.Sources said the aid package under consideration would amount to roughly $250 million, spread over three to five years.

In an unexpected move, the state Board of Public Works yesterday shifted $1.61 million in school construction money slated for repairs at five Baltimore County elementary schools to other county school projects.While local officials were pleased that the county will still receive $25 million in school construction money as promised, several County Council members worried that the loss of state matching funds could delay repairs at the five aging elementary schools.Said Councilman Kevin B. Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Randallstown Democrat, of the $530,000 worth of repairs scheduled for 89-year-old Randallstown Elementary, "Nothing in that school should wait a year."

WHEN LEADERS of the horse-racing industry patched together a temporary relief package at the recent General Assembly session, Gov. Parris N. Glendening was conspicuously silent. Lawmakers bought the industry's argument that state tracks need help to stay competitive with slots-rich tracks in Delaware. Now it is Mr. Glendening's turn to speak out.A four-bill package made it through the legislature, thanks in large part to Sens. Thomas Bromwell and Barbara Hoffman. The bills should ease financial pressure on Laurel and Pimlico and beef up purses that go directly to trainers, jockeys, owners and breeders.